Cutting through Midnight

By Sam W. Ryder

Chapter 2

When Shirou got back to his room he found a package was waiting for him at the bottom of his bed. Upon opening it, he found a school uniform identical to the one Shiki had been wearing, awaiting him.

"Do not waste time, Master Shiki has already left for school." Hisui's dull voice came from behind him.

"On my way Hisui-san," Shirou said as he began pulling off his shirt. He didn't receive a response and a glance over his shoulder told him what he already knew, the maid was gone. It was something about the maid, she never lingered, which added to the fact that she never smiled amounted to all of the knowledge he managed to learn about the girl.

Still, it was a mystery for another time. He changed as quickly as he could manage and all but bolted out of the house and sprinted down the way until he got through the gates. Shiki was nowhere to be seen.

Shirou sighed, he knew the boy was resistant to his presence but he figured he could have at least gotten directions to school.

Turning his head back toward the house he found that a sleek black sedan was rolling toward him. As it pulled in, he found the tinted window rolling down and they're sitting in the driver's seat was Kohaku.

"It's to the right, if you hurry you should be able to catch up relatively quickly. Under other circumstances, I would suggest you allow me to drive you to catch up but the lady has to get to school as well."

Shirou shook his head, "You've been plenty enough help." He bowed as the car pulled away and turned his attention back down the way his ward had headed to reach his school. He thrust his magical energy through his system, suffusing his muscles, his bones, his ligaments, and even his senses so they would not only meet the capabilities of the apex of humankind but surpass them.

Shirou took off. The wind clawed at his face as he moved, sprinting down the sidewalk, bolting across the street, blowing past two girls headed in the same direction as he himself. He'd likely draw some attention but it wasn't enough to worry about, especially if Akiha was correct and there was someone out to end Shiki's life.

It was as he began down a curving slope, he found Shiki. The boy walked with purpose, one handheld at his side curled into a tight fist, the other clutching at his bag. The only question was what was his purpose? To get to school or to get away from the Tohno house and Shirou by association.

When the boy stopped beside a couple of vending machines and began looking around, Shirou had to conclude it might have been for a different reason entirely. Still, as he made his approach, the boy didn't seem to notice or care. Only when he made to move on did he seem to see Shirou.

"Just leave me alone." He said and started back down the street.

Shirou walked five paces behind Shiki, not out of any sense of duty or propriety but for two far more important reasons. The first because it was far easier to keep an eye on the young man when he was right in front of him and two because the boy would not stop glaring at him.

So when they passed by a park, a blonde woman that felt like she smelled of blood and ancient stone, stepped in front of them, the hair on Shirou's arms stood on end.

"Well hello there." She said.

Shiki just stared back at her for a moment and slack-jawed, "You, you, you," He stuttered.

"Oh come on, I'm sure you remember well enough, the way you killed me? Cut me into seventeen pieces. It takes a lot of time to heal that kind of thing you know?"

Shirou was about to step in when Shiki began hyperventilating and bolted into the street, right into the path of an oncoming car. Shirou sprinted for him, slamming his shoulder into the smaller boy and sending him tumbling from the car's path but out of the street entirely.

He looked at Shirou, surprised, and for a second, he thought he saw the other boy nod before one glance at what Shirou knew to be the blond still waiting on the sidewalk sent Shiki running off again. Pausing only long enough to whip his head over his shoulder.

At that moment, Shirou turned his thought of telling the Male Tohno exactly what was going on into an item list, and right below it, he added, warning him not to run into the path of cars while another item came as to inform the young man he'd run faster if he didn't bother to look back. The last one was extremely important. There was a decent chance that in the near future, the other boy would be running for his life.

He tailed the other boy all the way to his school, an unassuming place that while in good repair had clearly seen better days.

"The office is just inside to the right, okay? See if you can't get into a different class than me." Shiki said without a backward glance at Shirou. Having said his piece, he headed up the stairs into the building leaving Shirou to follow his directions, because there was no denying he couldn't just walk into the boy's class and take a seat. The world didn't work that way. Or at least he didn't and judging by the way Shiki told him to visit the office before anywhere else, it was said to bet that it was the same in this world as well.

Upon arriving, Shirou entered the office and found himself facing a desk. The secretary was obviously away from their desk but the only other door connected to the room was wide open.

"Emiya-san, please join me in my office." A voice called from within the open room.

Shirou took a seat opposite of the principal, a short man with thick glasses and what was probably the worst comb-over Shirou had ever seen. Despite that, it was easy to see the man took a great deal of pride in his appearance. There wasn't a hint of stubble on his face, his Armani suit was perfectly pressed, even his teeth almost shined, they were very white.

"Emiya-san, I am Tenjouin Kenichi, the principal of Misaki Municipal." From the top of his desk, he lifted a thin file. "I do make it a point to read up on all the new entries to the school." He flipped the folder open though he didn't so much as glance at it.

"Records of your time in Fuyuki are slim, to say the least, and that was before you and your father seem to have vanished from the face of the earth… Three years of nothing and then."

He threw the folder onto the desk in front of Shirou. There were a few sheets but the topmost sheet was nothing more than a list of his grades and recent test scores. "I studied while we were on the road," Shirou said.

Internally, however, he was focused on the fact that there was a Fuyuki in this reality and a Shirou Emiya in it as well. Or at least there was one. At the very least he'd have to be careful who he might run into if he ever visited the area. Who knew how different their lives might have been.

In addition, Akiha had managed to doctor up or at the very least have someone else doctor up the necessary paperwork to get him into the school. Which meant that she'd gotten her hands on his records. To do that in just a single night showed just how much reach the girl had.

Shirou turned his attention back to the principal as the man took a deep breath, "I am reluctant to believe that your scores are as accurate as they could be without testing you myself." He paused to peek at the clock before standing and pulling his jacket off of its hook.

"Sadly, that will have to wait until next week. Until then I have received notice that you are tending to Tohno-san in regards to his health and general needs. As such you have been placed in his class for the time being."

He headed for the door gesturing at Shirou as he passed. Recognizing the dismissal Shirou followed the man out. "In the meantime, I suggest you go out of your way to prove you are where you're meant to be."

Throughout Shirou's life, there were many times when the conversations he was having took a turn he wasn't expecting, but he could count the number of times he'd almost missed the conversation entirely on one hand. As Tenjouin-san walked away, a fairly attractive young woman in a pantsuit walked in. She pressed a thick booklet into his hands and placed a diagram of the school on top of that, it was clear it was hand-drawn but very neatly.

"I apologize for not guiding you myself but today is a busy day. Just follow the map and you'll get there." She said before nodding to herself as if confirming what she said was what she meant to say.

Shirou nodded, "I appreciate that," he responded and made his way out of the room. To the woman's credit her directions were well done, there wasn't a missed turn or anything else that kept him from finding his way. It even showed the location of the student store and listed off the bathroom locations.

It took him less than five minutes to find his classroom.

"Excuse me," Shirou said as he lightly knocked on the door before sliding it open just a bit. There a man stood the epitome of an unappreciated teacher. Slightly slumped shoulders, shallow face, worn grey suit.

The man barely glanced at Shirou before speaking. "Ah, yes, yes, I believe Tenjouin-sensei mentioned a new student earlier, come in, come in." He said with a sigh and waved Shirou into the room.

"Class, I do apologize for the disturbance but we have a new student today. Emiya-san would you care to introduce yourself?"

Shirou blinked, he had totally forgotten that people actually introduced themselves when entering a new class. In Fuyuki there hadn't been a new member in class for several years. He took a breath and began. "Hello, I'm Emiya Shirou, it's a pleasure to meet all of you. I'm sure we'll get along just fine."

"Swell, Emiya-san. Just swell. You can find an empty seat in the back near the window. Now as I was saying-" As soon as he waved Shirou toward the back of the class, he returned to the book in his hands.

He knew most eyes were on him, most specifically the annoyed hamster glare from Shiki Tohno himself. Though the boy seemed a bit pale if one were to ask Shirou. As he settled into his seat Shirou found that he'd learned the material they were teaching a handful of months ago. He blinked in surprise.

'It seems like so long ago.' He thought, however even as his mind began to wander slightly from where his attention was supposed to be placed, his pencil scratched away at his paper. His notes were going to need to immaculate just in case, after all.

As soon as the bell rang, Shirou found himself surrounded by a handful of students.

"Why did you transfer in so suddenly?"

"Where were you before?"

"Is red your natural hair color or did you dye it? It's a bad job you should sue."

"Hori!"

Shirou smiled and answered.

So the day passed the class in and class out.

At lunch, Shirou pulled out his bento as he looked about the room, many of the students had left the room and a number of others had entered. Groups were quickly formed and the discussions began.

"I'm telling you, if you use the accursed crystal of Toll on the troll, in the beginning, you're wasting it! You need to save it for your encounter with Beelzebub!" A hefty young man with thick glasses said, grabbing another much smaller boy.

"Tomito, just because you aren't capable of matching Beelzebub even with maxing your defense doesn't mean a better player with a more rounded growth can't." A third boy said this one with bowl-cut saffron hair and thick glasses, leaning forward he pushed Tomito's hands off the smallest boy, no doubt the one who'd made the original comment that set Tomito off.

"I used a mix of evading and rend, and after ten minutes he went down." The small boy said.

Having heard enough, Shirou moved to the next group, four girls who'd pushed their tables together and were snagging bites off each other's food.

A blonde girl waving around a cherry tomato spoke first. "Did you see Ryo? The guy's really a model! I'm getting that sweater he was wearing for Tanimoto."

"Well, he does have the looks" This came from a short-haired girl with glasses and wearing butterfly clips in her hair.

The last was a buxom redhead with bright blue eyes who wasn't wearing the school's uniform, instead, she was wearing what looked to be clothing common to wanderers. "Personally, I like Handa, he's so mysterious."

"Rini, we all like Handa but it's like there's some kind of Handa wall keeping us from getting anywhere near the guy."

With a roll of his eyes, Shirou looked to the last group before Shiki was the only one left. All of them had their phones out and were frantically tapping at the screens on their phones. All save for one who was still playing with his phone but was poking at it at a more sedate pace.

"Join me in Gacha hell all of you, join me." He was whispering while glaring at all the other members of the group.

A boy wearing square glasses pushed the hair from his eyes, "Tanaka, just because you blew your entire allowance for J-alter doesn't mean you can try to curse us with the saltiness of your tears."

"Seriously dude, choose a different waifu."

"Never, Isuzu, Never! I WILL HAVE HER!" Any calmness Tanaka had vanished as he jumped to stand in his chair. "I have spent nearly a hundred thousand yen and will spend millions more for that is my way. You can claim Astolfo is enough, that you are content with your lineup. I shall walk as a man walks and pay whatever cost I must to attain what is rightfully mine!"

Isuzu sighed, "Fine just get down, you're an embarrassment."

"A true man cares not if he paints himself a fool! You will not- wah!"

The boy with the square glasses gave the other boy's chair a shove sending Tanaka onto the table.

Shirou looked away and reached for another bite of food only to find another pair of chopsticks moving away with a bit of rice and egg. He followed the arm back up to a blue-haired girl.

"Hi there, I'm Ciel!" She popped the food into her mouth and froze as her eyes slipped closed. "Oh god, this is divine."

Shirou gestured to the food, "Have as much as you'd like." He said as the classroom door banged open, in spilled four young men and a young woman who Shirou vaguely recognized and a teacher.

"Emiya-san, may we speak to you about the Archery club?" The first of the young men said, posing his question to the entire room.

Shirou stood and was about to apologize when the girl's arm jerked up and pointed right at him. "That's the guy sensei, he's the one you're looking for. He's the fastest runner I've ever seen!

Just like that, Shirou realized where he'd seen her. He'd run past her earlier that morning as he was trying to catch up to Shiki.

"The guy is one of the best archers currently in high school! He's joining us, not the track team!"

"Young man, have you thought about joining the Track and field club?" The teacher asked, ignoring the snapping of the archery club.

"Eh-hem," the clearing of a throat caught everyone's attention just as the bell rang. It was a young woman with auburn hair, behind her were the absent members of the class. "I think you all have places you should be," she said.

There was a decent amount of grumble as they all vacated the room but the teacher gave them all the evil eye until they had left.

"Now if we can turn our attention to Japanese literature please?" The teacher asked as she pulled out a book.

About halfway through the class, Shiki raised a hand. The teacher pursed her lips for a moment before calling him on it.

"May I be excused to the restroom?"

"If you must." She said pulling a wooden sign from the desk, she extended it to him, and just like that he was gone.

It was just as the bell rang and Shirou noticed it, Shiki never returned from the bathroom. Rubbing at the back of his head, Shirou quickly walked from the class and began his search. It wasn't really hard to figure out where the young man would go. There was only really one place he could go, home. Severe anemia would lead to too many accidents in clubs after all.

Bringing up the map Hisui had given him of the town Shirou began his search. There were several ways back to the Tohno residence, but most were the long way around leaving only two to fit the will of being the selected paths. Of those two one more uphill than the other leaving just the last one. That it was the path that they used to get to school just that morning made Shirou groan internally. Most people used the same route, especially if they didn't know their lives were in danger.

Telling Shiki was something he was really going to have to consider.

He caught up to Shiki as the boy started to pass a park when a blonde woman, the one who felt like she had the scent of ancient stone, of death and blood, who just so happened to be the one Shirou had seen Shiki talking to earlier in the day, stepped in front of him. Then, the boy ran.

Shirou started to follow when the woman began to move at a pace far beyond that of any humans. Add that to the many victims drained of their blood that had him on edge. He gritted his teeth and took off into a run.

He knew there was no way he was going to get a hold of her before she reached him and that was evident a moment later as she caught up to him and continued running pulling him along behind her. Shirou grit his teeth and pushed himself harder. From the road, he leapt onto a mailbox and from there to the nearest roof. Still, even with him pushing himself to his limit he found he could only just keep the blur that was his target in sight.

They exited the residential area and into the shopping district, somehow avoided drawing suspicion from the handful of shoppers around. They turned down an alley and as he reached the roof above, Shirou slid to a stop. It was a dead-end, the only way out was the way they'd come in unless they decided to start traveling along the roofs.

He was about to drop into the alley swords drawn when he found the blond woman had released Shiki and was talking to him, just talking, no threats, no weapons, not even the suggestion of the idea that he might get hurt. Not to mention he wasn't the only one that seemed interested in the two below. A blackbird settled on to the ledge, opposite to Shirou, seemed just as interested. Sure a bird wasn't a person but in a world where human beings would operate beyond the boundaries of the world's order, he wasn't going to dismiss it.

Shirou started to reach behind himself to begin his tracing when the bird looked at him, cawed, and took to the sky, as Shirou began generating the throwing knife he was going to use to bring it back to the ground, a low rumbling below him caught his attention.

Two demonic wolves barrelled down the alley, and while he knew there was something more to them than being familiars, Shirou couldn't place it. They were wrong, even for creatures markedly of the reverse side of the world. The way they moved, he'd seen the documentary his biology teacher showed about pack hunters, and even compared to that, the creature's movements were far too in sync.

Ten meters between them and their target, Shirou's mind began to race, a plan began to form. At seven meters he stepped from the edge of the building, the legendary weapons crossed like a pair of shears.

"Trace on," Shirou said as he dropped down from the roof he'd perched himself on. Bakuya's mirror-like blade and the tortoise patterned Kanshou filled his hands. The wolves were nearly on the male Tohno heir, three meters remained, and as the first one breached that mark, Shirou landed atop it and plunged the married swords through the beast's neck and spine.

There was a rumbling howl that pierced the air as Shirou stuck the ground in a roll. Planting the edge of Kanshou into the ground, he placed his feet beneath him and skidded across the concrete. The corpse he'd just made, a mottled tangle of limbs, and the black liquid was already breaking down when the other wolf arced above its fallen kin angling to split Shirou from throat to waist with its claws.

Shirou caught the descending claws against the edge of his sword and taking a half step forward lunged with the other to skewer the beast. Its flesh began to give way before it pushed off of Kanshou and leapt away from its death.

"That's not bad! I don't think I've seen a Magus fighting quite like you before." The blonde vampire girl said.

The wolf howled and it wasn't one of challenge or aggression. Shirou's eyes narrowed, it was a call marking its location. He whipped the sword around and slung it toward the beast. The blade spun like a circular saw giving off a heavy buzz as it cut its way through the air and was promptly avoided as the beast slid beneath it.

He swung his blade up, its edge clashing with claws and unlike the last time, Shirou found himself skidding backward. Every instinct he had as a swordsman told him to deflect the beast off to the side and maneuver himself behind it, but that wasn't an option. Not when his charge was standing with the vampire.

No, he had to keep himself between them. Shirou ducked back to avoid the snapping of the creature's teeth. He barely managed it. Worse it left him in a precarious situation where he was off balance. It was only going to take him another moment before he started to fall backward and he'd have failed.

'Imagine a weapon that can.' The words Archer had spoken to him what already seemed like a lifetime ago filled him.

'I already have that!' He thought and a thought struck him and he set to work. Pushing up against the claws, he pushed his way back up, his leg muscles pulsed angrily sending signals of pain which he ignored, he had something more important to focus on. The beast would lunge forward trying to catch his head, face, or throat in its mouth every three seconds, two of which were spent frantically trying to devour him after it lunged, it would then pull back for the barest of seconds and attempt the feat again.

It allowed Shirou a moment to find a rhythm. Duck back, swing his head right, then left and right again. He clutched a new hilt in his free hand, the mirror-like white blade extending away from him as it continued to form. Then as it pulled back he moved.

It lunged again but Kanshou was waiting for it. Between the force of its attack and Shirou's thrust, the blade was buried deep into the back of its mouth. It floundered and flailed pitching cries of pain and anguish as it tried and failed to free itself. A futile effort Shirou knew. Even if it had somehow managed to get off the blade which wasn't possible as when it pressed against the Kanshou locked against his claws Shirou gave way allowing it no purchase.

Then he heard it, the faint buzzing of Bakuya's return, and Shirou knew the creature had no hope. In the last moments, he pushed upon his sword and let it go along with the Kansho in its mouth while pushing himself away.

Blood sprayed everywhere as the wolf creature fell to the ground silently and unmoving. Shirou looked back over at Shiki and two warring feelings filled his stomach. Relief that his charge and the vampire girl were fine, annoyed at the situation the boy had gotten himself and by extension Shirou into.

There was no way the beast was something Shiki's extended family sent to end his life, especially since it seemed it was targeting the blond. Pushing himself to his feet Shirou looked around, the two were staring at him with no small amount of fascination but Shirou was focused on any enemies that may have chosen that moment to assail them. When he found nothing Shirou moved over to the corpse he'd made and pulled a pair of the blades free while breaking the image of the other in his mind.

There was, after all, no point in keeping it.

"Can someone explain what's going on?" Shirou asked with a raised eyebrow.

End

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